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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23524906">To Touch and To Hold</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CristalDePhoenix/pseuds/CristalDePhoenix'>CristalDePhoenix</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mass Effect Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Final Battle, Mass Effect 3, blurted confessions, some mention of blood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:47:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,019</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23524906</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CristalDePhoenix/pseuds/CristalDePhoenix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes<br/>our kiss feels like the only real thing<br/>in this world.</p><p>~Alexandra Vasiliu</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kal'Reegar/Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Thane Krios/Female Shepard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Spectre Requisitions 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>To Touch and To Hold</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyssAlenko/gifts">AlyssAlenko</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Most of Hammer Team had landed and Anderson had taken Shepard and her team to the Forward Operations Base. Not as many of the troops made it through as they had hoped. They would have to make do with the survivors. Shepard was busy going over the reports from all the species, planning out their next move with Anderson. Everyone else had left to make their own final preparations with their people.</p><p> </p><p>Liara was watching the war from the feeds on her datapad prioritised by Glyph, watching as the shuttles of troops tried to land on Earth to bolster the Alliance forces for the final push. They themselves were now at the makeshift hospital, going over supplies for the wounded. There would be many more to come in the next few hours.</p><p> </p><p>They'd flagged several shuttles for watching specifically. Shepard’s and her ground teams, Victus' team, and the troop carrier holding Tali's old friend Kal'Reegar.</p><p> </p><p>Liara had noticed that Tali and Kal spent a great deal of time messaging each other, and thus both Shepard and they suspect that Kal’Reegar was more than just a friend to her. It was one bright spot in the horrors of this war and they'd been happy for their friend.</p><p> </p><p>An emergency ping alerted Liara to Shepard and Victus’ shuttles having safely landed on the ground, but the Quarian marines had deviated from their chosen course… A quick check had their eyes bulging in horror at the realisation of what was about to happen.</p><p> </p><p>“Tali, I’m sending you and Shepard a message and you need to act fast! I’ll meet you in the Comms room ASAP. EDI, we’ll need your help too.” Liara was already on their way by the time the bewildered replies came through. They arrived not a minute apart. </p><p> </p><p>When they were all in the comms room, Tali looked frazzled but angry. “Keelah, I hope that bosh’tet doesn’t go through with this.” Clearly she had read the message on her way and agreed with the sentiment in the room. Liara quickly asked the Comms tech to leave them, they would call him if it were an emergency.</p><p> </p><p>“We don’t have much time, we need to do something right now,” Liara interjected.</p><p> </p><p>“Tali,” Shepard asked, “can you and EDI hack his tool? And from there, the ship he’s on?” Shepard didn’t know much about tech, but she knew that could be done. Just like EDI hacked the Collector vessel through her tool before.</p><p> </p><p>“Just give me a second, aaand... Got it. EDI, can you take control and fly the ship?” Tali asked desperately, the light of her voice modulator flashing like morse code.</p><p> </p><p>“Affirmative, Admiral Zorah. I have control of the ship. Would you like to speak to him?” EDI’s mobile platform sounded less calm than usual - the voice of the resident Normandy AI had gained more inflection as time progressed. </p><p> </p><p>“Yes! He’s got another thing coming for trying this stunt!” The angry little quarian swung her fist in the air at the comm.</p><p> </p><p>A few seconds later, a jittery static image appeared from said quarian’s omnitool on the comm system. “Kal’Reegar! Don’t you dare throw your life away!”</p><p> </p><p>He looked well and truly beat up, even through the grainy display, the background matching his appearance. There were tears in his suit matched by bleeding wounds on his pale grey skin, some covered by medigel patches, but not all. The command deck of the ship had sparking wires and panels hanging from the ceiling and bulkheads, and only dim emergency lights were illuminating the room. At least Kal’s helmet seemed intact. Shepard debated with herself what action to take while her friend laid into the other quarian.</p><p> </p><p>“Ma’am, let me do this. My suit is shot-” he coughed and Shepard could see a few red blood splatters on the inside of the helmet, his voice rough “- and so am I. At least if I ram this ship into the nearest Reaper, it will give the other Sword ships time to escape or attack!” he pleaded with Tali, probably thinking they didn’t have the resources to waste on saving just one marine. And in his current condition, he might not last long enough in an escape pod to wait for eventual rescue. Shepard had to agree with him. In a similar situation, if she knew she would not get any back-up, she would try to go out while taking as many of the enemy with her as she could. But he wasn’t alone. Not as long as he was Tali’s friend and… whatever else he was to her. They had lost enough friends already to this damned war.</p><p> </p><p>Tali hesitated to answer and Kal’s voice continued in the silence.  “Dammit Ma’am, everyone else has already abandoned ship, and the autopilot is fried! Let me at least take one of the bastards out with me.” He coughed again, more blood sputtering his mask from the inside.</p><p> </p><p>“No! No Kal! Don’t throw your life away like that!” Her voice was choked with tears, “I can’t lose you too... I... I don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you, you bosh’tet!” </p><p>She paused, realising what she’d said, and immediately brought her hands up to her mask in a gasp. </p><p> </p><p>Kal looked stunned into silence, but Shepard and Liara just smiled at them. Finally. They’d been watching these two dance around each other, exchanging messages for too long. No time for regrets. This world is about to end, or give way to something new.</p><p> </p><p>“EDI, set a course for that ship. Kal, get your ass in the nearest escape pod. EDI will crash it for you and the Normandy will pick you up.”</p><p> </p><p>“You always seem to steal my thunder, Shepard. Keelah Se’lai.” He saluted, lingered a little where it looked like he was smiling at Tali, before he hobbled out from the pilot's chair. Though the words might seem hurt, his tone was joking. </p><p> </p><p>Kal’Reegar quickly moved to an escape pod while EDI took remote control of the damaged ship. Once he was ejected, EDI steered the turian vessel into the nearest Reaper, causing it to focus on the ship attempting to ram it instead of the other vessels. The damaged vessel exploded in spectacular fashion, leaving a sizeable hole in the Reaper’s side, a weak point for others to take it out.</p><p> </p><p>The Normandy swooped in and picked up Kal’s escape pod, Joker quickly getting them out of there. The transport of turians that was supposed to be part of Hammer was all too happy that Kal’s team showed up when they did - without assistance, they’d surely all have died. In all likelihood they’d die soon anyway, trying to retake Earth from the Reapers. But every life saved was a victory gained, in Shepard’s opinion. Kal had boarded the damaged ship to help get the Turians on his small transport, or help them to escape pods when his ship was full when his pilot had to break away or be shot down themselves. Kal had ordered the pilot to return to the quarian fleet, and he’d take care of the rest.</p><p> </p><p>“Tali, I know you’d like to see him now, but we have to get ready to head out ourselves. I’ll have Chakwas send you an update on his condition when she can, alright?” Though Kal was probably on the forefront of Tali’s worries right now, Shepard needed her attention here on Earth.</p><p> </p><p>Tali took a shaky breath, before she visibly steeled herself, becoming the Quarian Admiral she needed to be. “You’re right, Shepard. And thank you. Thank you all for saving him.” Tali was about to walk off when Shepard hugged her like a sister.</p><p> </p><p>“I got your back Tali. I knew you had a thing for Kal ever since Haestrom. The messages you two kept exchanging, you giggling every other time you check your messages? Think I didn’t notice?”</p><p> </p><p>Tali sputtered a response. “Wha-.. Where, how? Since Haestrom? Shepard what gave you th-” </p><p> </p><p>“Oh, Tali. You really were that oblivious? I saw how you talked to him, how he acted around you. Then the constant messages? It was a little obvious.”  Shepard grinned at her friend. It was the first real smile she’d given in ages. With Thane gone, her own happiness had become increasingly scarce. </p><p> </p><p>“Really?” Clearly Tali had only just come to the conclusion that she loved Kal’Reegar as more than just a friend.</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah. Now how about we end this war so you can go tell him in person?” Shepard teased.</p><p> </p><p>Tali nodded and smiled with her eyes, before turning to go back to her own preparations for the coming battle.</p><p> </p><p>Shepard looked at the retreating back of their quarian friend, while talking to Liara. “You had his tool tagged so you can get updates if something happens to him?” </p><p> </p><p>Liara’s reply was a sly smile, tone sounding mock hurt. “Why Shepard, are you accusing me of spying on our mutual friend’s potential love interest? You make it sound like I have no morals.” </p><p> </p><p>“Uhu. Yeah.” Walking out of the comm room, Shepard paused next to Liara, and said in a whisper “I’m glad you did.”</p><p> </p><p>With a deep breath, Shepard walked off and prepared herself as well. Time to go save the galaxy. Again. Hopefully for the last time.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p> </p><p>Tali was rushed to the medbay along with Garrus as the Normandy took off to rejoin the fight. They had both wanted to remain by Shepard’s side through this last battle, but it wasn’t to be.</p><p> </p><p>Chakwas gave them both a quick once over with a scanner, then directed Garrus to a bed. “You will have to wait while I deal with Tali, her suit ruptures are more life-threatening than your cuts and bruises, Garrus. Can you get out of your armour alone or do you need assistance?” The doctor asked as she helped Tali to the back of the medbay, through a decon barrier that effectively divided the medbay into rooms. Behind the barrier was a sterile area - the closest available thing to a cleanroom without closing off the entire medbay to other patients. The windows were already blacked out.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t worry about me, Doc. Help Tali. She was closest to that Mako when it exploded.” He hobbled to a bed close to the door, then slowly and painfully started to remove his armour one piece at a time.</p><p> </p><p>Frowning, the doctor indicated one of the nurses to help him regardless of his words, before she pulled the privacy curtain around her and Tali, letting her lay down on the bed. Luckily, Karin was already in her sealed scrubs and the area was already set up for quarians, since she had just finished with her other patient.</p><p> </p><p>“Easy Tali. Let’s get that suit off. It’s not helping you much right now anyway.” Tali just mutely nodded and helped her to open the seals and peel the damaged layer of vital protection from her body. Underneath, her pale purple-skinned quarian looked bad. Mottled from bruises forming, cuts here and there; a slash on her back and a bruised or broken rib. Chakwas could see Tali was in mild shock because it did not seem like the injuries bothered her or even registered as her own. The scan had informed the doctor that her patient was already running a fever, too, and was losing blood.</p><p> </p><p>“This will need surgery. I’m going to sedate you Tali. See you when you wake up,” Chakwas told her. Laying her down with another nod, since breathing seemed to hurt, Tali let the doctor inject her without preamble, and quickly the world started to dim.</p><p> </p><p>“Tell me if we’ve won doc… and if… Kal... is…,” were her last words.</p><p> </p><p>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p> </p><p>Light filtered through Tali’s eyelids as consciousness drew nearer for her. Slowly, her other senses caught up. She was outside her suit - that she could feel. The scratchy military-grade blanket was not the most comfortable feeling to wake up to, but oh so wonderful to <em> feel </em> anything directly. The mattress was ok though. The unfamiliar sensations pulled her to wakefulness faster. The smell of antiseptic and decon mist was heavy in the air - this was more familiar, but still burned her nose slightly without the usual filters. </p><p> </p><p>The sounds were,  well... absent. As in no sounds beyond the monitor that kept beeping her vitals. Not even the hum of the drive core could be felt through the bedding. That was wrong, very wrong. Sure, the Normandy ran quieter than any other ship Tali had ever served on, but she knew how to listen to the heartbeat of the ship. And it was dead.</p><p> </p><p>Straining to hear anything at all, she picked up on something else. Someone else was in the too-quiet room with her. Slow breathing indicated the person was either at rest or asleep. Were they in the same decon room?! That couldn’t be any good for her. None of this made any sense, so she pushed her mind to full wakefulness faster, straining to at least open her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>The first sting of the medbay lights made her blink to adjust, but even these were not as bright as they should be. That would only happen if they were low on power, or the backup generators were running. Either scenario did not bode well. Eyes finally focusing, she pushed herself to sit up, and immediately regretted it. With a groan, she fell back the short distance she had managed to move, the blanket falling down to her waist at the movement. Her ribs hurt and she could feel she was already running a fever. </p><p> </p><p>The memories of the final battle came flooding back, along with all the emotions that went with it. A single tear ran down her cheek at having to leave Shepard to fend for herself. How could she?! After all they’d been through? The attack on the Citadel, the Collector base, the war on Rannoch and everything in between? She and Garrus had always been there with Shepard. Something must have worked with the Crucible because they were still alive. Well, mostly alive with a downed ship.</p><p> </p><p>Rustling nearby drew her attention and she quickly turned her head to look at the source, having forgotten she wasn’t alone in here. When her eyes focused enough, she startled with a gasp as she realized she was looking at Kal’Reegar. The marine was lying in a medbay bed right next to her, not covered by a suit but an Alliance shirt and a blanket. He was sitting up and looking at her with concern in those beautiful, glowing white-silver eyes. Eyes she never thought she would see without a mask on.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you all right, Ma’am? Should I call Dr Chakwas for you?” He gingerly moved to get out of his bed, arm around his waist while the other kept hold of the bed for support. He was wearing shorts she’d seen Vega wear - boxers, she thought he called them. The other quarian was clearly not healed yet, but he still made it over to her bedside.</p><p> </p><p>Tali just stared at him, mouth slightly agape. After her blurted out confession, not only was she staring at an almost naked quarian for the first time in…. a very long time, but she suddenly noticed just how muscular he was. His figure made her start to feel hot under the collar, and she was sure she was blushing. Her eyes roved over him from his muscular legs, bandaged waist and shoulder, strong arms, wide shoulders and finally to his face. He was smiling at her now and she realised she had just given him the once over. While he was looking at her doing the same. She squeaked and hid her reddening face in her hands.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh Keelah! I’m so sorry Kal!” Not only did she give him a once over, but only close family or medical personnel saw another quarian outside of their suit. ‘<em> And lovers.’ </em> Her mind supplied unhelpfully.</p><p> </p><p><em> ‘You’re looking at him, but what are </em> you <em> wearing?’ </em> At the realisation, she peaked at her own appearance. She was wearing what Shepard had termed a black ‘tank top’ with bandages underneath and some shorts as well. ‘ <em> Oh Keelah! I’m practically naked in front of him too!’ </em> Tali quickly pulled the scratchy blanket over her chest, glaring at Kal when she heard him laughing at her.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry for what, Ma’am? We’ve been in here like this for a few days now. Ow-” He stopped laughing, holding his side again. He looked back, letting his shoulder-length, thin black braids fall over his shoulder, the slight winds feeling like a gentle summer breeze to Tali’s exposed, sensitive skin. She gave an involuntary shiver at the sensation. Kal took a step back and leaned against his bed again. “Sorry, Ma’am. Didn’t mean to be rude, just got used to you without a suit on by now.”</p><p> </p><p>“Why are we without suits anyway? And in the same room? What happened with Shepard and the Crucible? Why is the drive core offline?” Tali laid into him with the questions that had been bugging her when she woke up.</p><p> </p><p>Kal held up a pale grey, three-fingered hand to stem the overflow of questions. “Easy there, Ma’am. I’ll try to answer what I can.” Kal took a slow, deep breath, and let it out just as slowly.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m going to answer in a way I hope gives you the information you asked, Ma’am.”</p><p> </p><p>“Please Kal. Just call me Tali. No need for formalities now.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll try to remember that. Ma’am.” He smiled at her scowl at him but turned serious with a scowl of his own. </p><p> </p><p>“From what I’m told, you were brought on board with pretty bad injuries, almost as bad as mine. The Doc had just finished with me, so she jumped right in to fix you up since everything was already set up as a clean room and all that. She had just set the regen units on us, and a bone knitter to work on your ribs when the call came to evac to the rendezvous point. We were in relay transit when some kind of red beam came out of the Crucible and jumped through all the relays after us. It kicked us out of the jump and we crashed on this unknown garden world. Breathable atmosphere at least, but it’s levo. We can’t even say where we are since the nav system is completely fried.”</p><p> </p><p>“We don’t know what Shepard did, or if it worked because we have no comms, but we do know that there hasn’t been a single Reaper sighted in this system on long-range scanners as of yet. As for us, the damage to the ship is pretty bad, our suits are pretty much ruined, and the ship’s AI is not responding. The crew has been running non-stop to fix the Normandy, but they have limited resources for such major repairs, and they don’t really know how to fix our suits. We are running on emergency backup power, so they had to take the barrier down and instead made the whole medbay a clean room, saving energy. We, uh… have been sharing the same air space since then.”  Reegar looked down at his rarely seen feet, shuffling them a little over the cold metal floor, using the sensation to hide the feeling of his slight blush at the fact that they shared airspace. It was almost like linking suits. “We both had fevers but we’re swimming in antibiotics so it was an acceptable risk so they could save on power. Who knows how long repairs will take.”</p><p> </p><p>“Your wounds need more healing since the bone knitters didn’t finish, and your blood transfusion was cut short now that there isn’t enough power to work the mini-fabricator for the medbay, so the doc kept you under till now. You’ve been out for three days. I think they’re running low on dextro sedatives. The turian they fixed up too and moved him to his quarters for recovery so they can make the entire medbay a cleanroom. From what I hear he’s already diverted all the power from the weapons to help power the medbay. Once the doc clears us, we can fix our suits properly and start helping out with repairs. Until then, we don’t get visitors except for the doc and only at mealtimes.” Tali listened intently, the scratchy blanket held tight over her chest like a lifeline.</p><p> </p><p>Kal paused, giving her time to let it all sink in. Tali’s mind was whirling with all the implications and fallout from this. First on the list was repairing the comms, in conjunction with fixing the engine and making the Normandy space worthy again. Then- “Ow!”</p><p> </p><p>Tali had gotten caught up in her thought processes and was still unsteady on her feet. She was heading for a faceplant with the floor before strong arms and pale grey hands caught her. Kal helped her up to lean against her bed. The sensation of skin on skin was so new to Tali, she didn’t even register what it was until she lifted her head and saw his hand holding her steady on her upper arm. Tali was panting slightly at the scare and the pain, but could feel her face heat up again as he gave her a caring smile. They were so close she could feel his breath on her skin, smell the  antibacterial soap their military handed out to it’s troops, as well as to other allied vessels if they need to shelter one of them. Looking up into his smiling face, in the back of her mind, she admitted she would love to see more of it.</p><p> </p><p>“You alright there, Admiral?” His voice startled her back to the present and she quickly looked away, clearing her throat.</p><p> </p><p>“Uh,... Yeah. I’m... fine. I’m fine. Thanks for, you know, catching me before I fell.”</p><p> </p><p>“Just doing my job. Tali.” He slowly let go as she looked back at him for using her name instead of ‘Ma’am’. As soon as his hands left her skin, she missed the sensation of his calloused hands and fought back the urge to go after them. He leaned back onto his bed and she could see he was mulling over something. They stood there for a few minutes, each not knowing what to say before Kal made up his mind and spoke it.</p><p> </p><p>“Tali. Did you mean what you said. Back when I was on that ship?” His emotions had closed off. He had the look of a hardened marine, ready to go to battle. She could see he was bracing for rejection, shoulders straightening and going stiff, face unreadable, not holding on to hope. To be fair, she had blurted it out of nowhere on an open comm at the start of the biggest battle the galaxy has seen since 50000 years ago. He had every right to be skeptical. </p><p> </p><p>Except there wasn’t any need for it. Tali had decided she was done holding back, now that she knew. No regrets, like Shepard had said. Taking as deep a breath as her ribs would allow, she looked him in the eyes. “Yes, Kal. I meant it. I couldn’t lose you, too. I love you.” She let her emotions show through on her face, so he would have no more doubts, eyes not wavering from his, a slight blush creeping in on her cheeks.</p><p> </p><p>Kal blew out the breath he’d been holding in with a small chuckle. “You really meant that.” He stated, and took a step closer with a slight limp. She didn’t back away. He brought a hand up slowly, so she could refuse him at any point, and gently laid it on her cheek. Tali pressed into the contact, savouring the sensation of being able to touch without a suit between them. Her own hand came up to his, doubling the contact surface between them. </p><p> </p><p>When Tali looked up, Kal was so close she could see the mercury-like swirl of his silver-white glowing eyes and she was captivated by it. He seemed to be equally entranced by her eyes as he said: “I’ve been hoping you would say that.” just above a whisper.</p><p> </p><p>They were slowly leaning in towards each other when the medbay door beeped, the lock going from red to green and a decon barrier appearing. The lights dimmed slightly the moment the barrier came up, and it took another second for the door to cycle through the unlocking, which gave both a chance to take startled steps away from each other like two teens being caught. Doctor Chakwas came in wearing a full hazmat suit, holding a covered plate in one hand.</p><p> </p><p>When the door closed she looked between the two, before placing the sealed plate of food down. “Well now. Didn’t think you would be awake yet Tali, much less on your feet. How are you feeling?” And with that, their moment was broken. Chakwas came up to Tali, scanning her with her ‘tool instead of the medbay’s more sophisticated scanners (which probably used more power, now that she thought about it.)</p><p> </p><p>“Still a little bit tender, Doctor. Light headed. I can’t breathe deeply or move fast.” She answered honestly, hoping the doctor didn’t notice her blush.</p><p> </p><p>“I would hope you didn’t move so fast and test it out? You had a concussion and broken ribs. Your blood counts look good, and it seems you have adapted to each other in the room. I didn’t have time to heal the breaks, and the other bruises will heal in time on their own. You got enough synthetic blood into you before the power went out that I wasn’t worried about you, but you are still on the low end. We are keeping the medigel and other equipment for life-threatening injuries,” the doctor explained as she checked Tali over.</p><p> </p><p>“No Karin, I didn’t. I don’t think I’ll be moving fast any time soon.” The mention of them having adapted to one another’s presence made her head swirl with possibilities. She gently rubbed at her ribs under the tank top to distract her from such thoughts. The pain from the simple contact emphasized the need to move more carefully. The sensation of feeling with her own fingers was still new to her and she looked down at it. The clothing wasn’t as comfortable as her suit was. Then again, a quarian’s suit was literally made to live in for years on end, provided they didn’t need medical attention or major repairs, and only replacing filters. So it was hard to compare the two.</p><p> </p><p>Chakwas turned off her ‘tool and smiled at her friend. “Good. Then you won’t mind remaining in here for a  few more days. I can have your suits brought in so you can see what needs to be repaired, but if it’s too strenuous for either of you, make a report on what needs fixing and I’ll get one of the engineers to do it. It’s more important to get you to 100% before you exit here than to have your suits ready so you can walk out. I know you will both just jump into repairs and won’t give your bodies time to heal. I already had problems with Garrus doing so.” She admonished while giving them both <em> the look </em> mothers everywhere have perfected.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes ma’am.” Kal saluted with a smile, which the doctor returned. Clearly there was some inside joke Tali was missing.</p><p> </p><p>“We’ll be fine Karin. And thank you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Good. Then I’ll quickly go and prepare a meal for you as well, Tali. You both are on track with your recovery.” And with that, the doctor quickly left them, the lights dimming as the door had to generate the decon barrier again.</p><p> </p><p>When they were both alone, they looked back at each other. Kal was the first to move back into her space, bringing both hands up to touch her face, her hair, her neck and shoulders. Tali revelled in the almost overload of sensations, but her hands were not idle. They travelled up his strong arms, to his wide shoulders, his face and hair as well. </p><p> </p><p>“We should stop,” Tali said breathily. At his disappointed face, she elaborated. “Chakwas will be back any minute with another plate of food. We have the next few days alone.  To just touch each other Kal. We can wait until after our meal.” She leaned up and gave him a peck on the cheek. Oh, how wonderful it felt to feel his warm skin against her lips, and she could see him blushing in return as well. If she were to die right now, she would die happy.</p><p> </p><p>“If you insist, Ma’am.” Tali pulled away with a huff and swatted his uninjured arm, to which he laughed. She moved to her bed again, with Kal hobbling to the table to retrieve the sealed plate. Opening the lid revealed a tube of sterilised food paste. All he needed would be in that rather flavourless tube, but it looked like one of the better varieties Shepard insisted on stockpiling aboard for her friend.</p><p> </p><p>“You can have the first one Tali. I can wait a few more minutes.” He hobbled back to her and handed the tube to her. Their fingers brushed each other as he gave it to her and she quickly wrapped her opposite hand around his. </p><p> </p><p>“Thank you, Kal.” A moment passed of them just standing there, looking into each other's eyes, hands held around the tube of paste. Eventually, Tali pulled back with her food. Kal quickly helped her sit on her bed again, probably just as an excuse to touch more of her, since his hands lingered with every move before he returned to his own bed. </p><p> </p><p>“Always a pleasure, Tali.”</p><p> </p><p>They stayed like that, Tali sucking away at paste that did not pass through her mask filters for the first time in her life, staring at the other until Chakwas returned. They silently couldn’t wait for her to leave again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry it's late, but it's done and I hope you enjoy!</p><p>Your request blurp inspired me to write this, and I ship Tali/Kal so hard I just had to. And Honestly Kal'Reegar deserved better than to die in an email Bioware. So here is my take on how it should have happened.</p><p>I want to thank my lovely Beta's, Spicy_Gnome and drladybird, for their wonderful work in fleshing out scenes and suggestions. You guys are the greatest!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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